Following their entrance into the Dutch online retail market, web and streaming services, tech-giant Amazon has made a new announcement; they have a new drone! After the delivery drone, operational in the US, their newest flying baby is a small security drone with camera included. This apparatus is part of the Ring product line, which stems from electrical doorbells. The doorbells, and now these drones, come with a broadly compatible app on which a user can view through the eyes of this doorbell. The Always Home cam is made small because it is meant to fly in the living room. According to Marc Hijink, technology-expert and columnist at Dutch newspaper NRC, the all-seeing eye of Amazon is now expanding the insides of your living room. This news has, as a lot of technological innovations do, two sides to the story. One being the story about development, innovation, evolution and progress. The other one unmistakably being the privacy discussion. The launch of this new product has happened in the United States a few days ago and chances are Europe is next. Is Europe to welcome or halt these types of products from Amazon? (Hijink, 2020) (The Verge, 2020)
First up, progress. In what way is this product going to help the consumer, and what kind of impact can the Always Home cam have on your life? The dronecam works autonomous and detects unrecognised movement in your living room, so it can help identifying burglars or scare them away. Furthermore, it can help when you are at work and have young kids at home, or a dog that likes to scratch its’ nails on your couch. Now you are able to see and prevent this live. Pretty convenient, right? (Hijink, 2020) (The Guardian, 2020)
The other side to the story is the privacy discussion. Amazon does not have a cleared name in that sense, as illustrated by few of the links below this post. Critics of Amazon like to bring the well-known voice assistant Alexa to the table. This device hearing you talk within the four walls of your living room in combination with the data management of Amazon (The Verge, 2019), is seen by some as evil. Now, with the Always Home cam, Alexa is given eyes.
People should always pay attention to what they are buying. In recent times decision making on retail products has gained a new dimension. It seems as though the concerns about capabilities of new products from tech-mastodonts are increasing, and rightfully so. In other words, downsides of a product concerning privacy are increasing when comparing them to the advantages, which seem more and more redundant. Write down in the comments what you think about this, so there can be a discussion on if products like the Always Home cam are a good development or not.
https://www.nrc.nl/nieuws/2020/09/29/het-wakend-oog-van-amazon-a4013870https://m.media-amazon.com/images/G/01/sidewalk/privacy_security_whitepaper_final.pdfhttps://www.theguardian.com/technology/2019/oct/09/alexa-are-you-invading-my-privacy-the-dark-side-of-our-voice-assistantshttps://www.theverge.com/2020/9/24/21451702/amazon-hardware-event-live-blog-news-announcements-productshttps://www.theverge.com/2019/7/3/20681423/amazon-alexa-echo-chris-coons-data-transcripts-recording-privacy
Interesting post Martijn! I think that the average consumer has to be made more aware of the fact that smart homes can be a serious privacy risk. While I’m not sure about the bad/good intentions of these tech giants, we cannot overlook hackers as a potential danger. People’s home are now filled with devices that are connected to the internet: smart thermostats, smart baby monitors and even smart light bulbs. And while homes are becoming increasingly smart, their homes are also becoming more easy to penetrate by evil minded hackers. A majority of the people don’t even change the admin credentials on their browsers. Maybe it could be an idea to actively educate people on the importance of securing their smart homes.
Hi Martijn, I had heard about Alexa but not about this inside Amazon drone, very interesting! Personally, I don’t really see the added value of owning an Alexa or this drone but it wouldn’t surprise me if I own one in 5 or 10 years. Even though I have some serious concerns regarding privacy. What do you think? Will you own something similar in the future?